How to delete non-empty directory

Anonymous Monk has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

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Re: How to delete non-empty directory by Joost (Canon) on May 17, 2007 at 20:06 UTC
You don't need super/root permissions to delete a directory, you just need to remove any files and subdirectories in it first. The standard module File::Path exports the `rmtree()` function that recursively deletes directories. It's probably the easiest portable way to achieve this. "What should it profit a man, if he should win a flame war, yet lose his cool?"	[reply] [d/l]
Re: How to delete non-empty directory by clinton (Priest) on May 17, 2007 at 20:07 UTC
Have a look at File::Path. It has a `rmtree()` function. It works, the only downside is that if you want to catch any errors, you need to trap `$SIG{__WARN__}` - annoying, to say the least.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: How to delete non-empty directory by Khen1950fx (Canon) on May 18, 2007 at 21:25 UTC
I've been using a script that a monk posted here sometime ago. It's an elaboration of swampyankee's idea: `my $old_dir = '/path/to/old_dir'; my $result = system("rm -rf $old_dir"); print "Result: $result\n";` [download] It will delete directories with or without files.	[reply] [d/l]
Re: How to delete non-empty directory by swampyankee (Parson) on May 18, 2007 at 15:33 UTC
If you're really, really sure of the name of your temporary folder, you could use the system¹ command: `rm -fr $temporary_folder`; [download] I would be more than slightly paranoid about this, making sure that $temporary_folder didn't have a value such as '~' or '/' or anything that would confuse the shell. Notes 1 using "system" to include backticks, qx//, etc. emc Insisting on perfect safety is for people who don't have the balls to live in the real world. —Mary Shafer, NASA Dryden Flight Research Center	[reply] [d/l]